OVER the last 16 years of SNP Government, Scotland’s colleges and universities have been left in no doubt as to how low they sit in this government’s priorities.

Scotland’s higher education sector is respected around the world, and our universities have long punched well above their weight when it comes to producing world-leading research.

However, under the SNP, colleges’ and universities’ wings are being well and truly clipped. Since 2014, the Scottish Government has slashed university funding by over £800 per student.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s colleges stand ready to become key hubs of innovation, providing a vital route into the workforce for many of Scotland’s young people.

Also, a serious lack of investment in our colleges has left them chasing a maintenance backlog of over £300m, and the number of students studying at colleges has dropped by over a third since the SNP first came to power.

So last year, when the SNP promised an extra £46m of funding for colleges and universities, this was a welcome step in the right direction.

When announcing this funding, the then Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “We must have a skills, training and research environment that enables our people and businesses to realise their potential.”

And on this point, he was absolutely right.

This is precisely why it was such a devastating blow when earlier this month, the SNP announced they were withdrawing this extra funding that they had promised.

Colleges were already struggling to make ends meet, but the decision to cut this funding means that staff redundancies and course cancellations are now more likely than ever.

Forth Valley College have announced they are having to cancel evening classes at their Alloa campus as a cost saving measure, plus they are consulting on further possible cutbacks which may include redundancies.

City of Glasgow College has announced that it is potentially cutting up to 100 jobs due to a £6m funding shortfall.

Convener of Universities Scotland, Professor Dame Sally Mapstone, has said that the decision to cut this funding means that universities are headed for a “managed decline” in the years to come, which is hardly the legacy that this world-class sector deserves.

The unfortunate truth here and now is that the SNP has been demonstrating how little it has valued further and higher education for some time now. This withdrawal of this funding is just the latest in a long line of cuts and tragically, there will no doubt be more to come in the near future.

When it comes to education, our past First Minister Nicola Sturgeon left behind a legacy of failure and on current form, Humza Yousaf seems determined to continue this.

This Scottish government is failing to properly equip our colleges and universities to do what they do best, which is to create the knowledge and skills that our country will need in the years to come.

And ultimately, just as it has been before under the SNP, it is Scotland’s young people who stand to lose the most from this.